Problems of Recall and Misclassification With Checklist Methods of Measuring Stressful Life Events
The prevalent use of life event category checklists to facilitate event recall may be one reason that previous studies find that life events play only a small and ambiguous role in the development of health problems. In this study, 136 persons with temporomandibular pain disorder syndrome (TMPDS) an...
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Veröffentlicht in: | Health psychology 1991, Vol.10 (1), p.62-74 |
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Hauptverfasser: | , , |
Format: | Artikel |
Sprache: | eng |
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Zusammenfassung: | The prevalent
use of life event category checklists to facilitate event recall may be one
reason that previous studies find that life events play only a small and
ambiguous role in the development of health problems. In this study, 136 persons
with temporomandibular pain disorder syndrome (TMPDS) and 131 healthy controls
reported the occurrence of life events in 10 monthly interviews, using an event
category checklist. At the end of the study, they reported retrospectively and
in detail about life events over the previous monthly periods. Only one quarter
of the event categories appeared in both the monthly interviews and
retrospective report for the same period. Detailed analyses revealed problems of
inaccuracy inherent in checklists that exacerbate problems of recall. The
findings indicate that checklist category approaches should not be used when the
goal is to understand the role of stress in adverse health outcomes. Suggestions
are made about more adequate methods.
Key words:
stressful life events, reliability, life events inventories, methodology |
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ISSN: | 0278-6133 1930-7810 |
DOI: | 10.1037/0278-6133.10.1.62 |